The Great Escape

The Great Escape by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Sometimes I want something lighter to read, especially when I need an audiobook to listen to when I’m driving. Susan Elizabeth Phillip’s characters are very good company if you want a romance with some comedy. This is a companion book to Call Me Irresistible, and they can be read in any order. Lucy Jorik is the former president’s adopted daughter, and feels the need to live up to that responsibility. When she finds out at the last minute that she just can’t marry her perfect fiance, Ted Bodine, she panicks and runs away in a choir robe and heels. Wedding guest Patrick, who goes by Panda, gives her a ride on his motorcycle, and they end up on a road trip with Lucy in disguise to escape the press. Panda, although he wears offensive t-shirts, is very attractive and Lucy falls for him. Later, Lucy decides to track him down and ends up staying in his summer house on an island in Lake Michigan. She needs to do some writing for a book about her famous mother, but keeps getting sidetracked. We meet Bree, who has just become guardian to 12-year-old Toby, and is learning to keep bees, and local realtor Mike Moody, who Bree tries to avoid. When Panda, a security consultant, is hired by longtime client Temple, he brings the television diva to the island so she can lose weight while avoiding publicity. Lucy and Panda’s bickering, fighting their attraction, is very funny. Bree’s gradual realization that Mike is no longer the annoying boy she remembers is more heartwarming.

Readalikes for this book would include Jennifer Crusie, Janet Evanovich’s romantic comedies, and Elizabeth Adler.

Brenda